


Poisoned words

by Bluemoondreams



Category: Trolls (2016)
Genre: Angst, Darkness, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-16 02:59:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11819844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluemoondreams/pseuds/Bluemoondreams
Summary: Sometimes there are things you say that you end up regret saying and Creek is learning that the hard way.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> What can I say about this story, it just kind of happened, I hope you will all enjoy this, I’m not at all sure where it is going to go. I don’t own these characters, I just borrowed them for a while and then gave them back. Warnings for this story, darkness, angst, romance, fluff and two males in love eventually. I have dyslexia so be kind about any spelling and grammar mistakes.

Chapter one:

It was another day around the troll tree, Creek and Branch were unsurprisingly involved in yet another verbal sparing match. “I don’t see why you can’t find a single thing to be positive to be about!” The purple troll flung at the survivalist.

Branch raised both eye brows at the guru and said with sarcasm. “Oh I can be positive!”

As always, his sarcasm was missed by the other troll, the spiritual troll glared at him and the said to Branch. “Really? Then prove it!”

A small deadly smile curved up the mouth of the grey troll as he said. “I am positive that you are an insensitive moron!”

Creek glared at Branch again. “That’s not what I meant by being positive!”

“Really?” The survivalist asked him with faux innocence.

“Of course not. I mean why can’t you look on the bright side at least once! If you could just be a little less bitter then maybe some troll would bother to care about you! All you do is ruin everything! All of this pointless running around screaming about Bergens! They are never going to find us! All I see right now is a disgusting grey grump! You are doomed to spend your life alone if you stay as you are! Not a single troll would care if you died!” As soon as he spat these poisonous words out at the other troll Creek knew that he’s just made a huge mistake, but at the same time right now he couldn’t bring himself to regret the words.

Branch’s face quickly eclipsed with anger, he let out a low threatening growl, having never seen him like this before now Creek took a step back from him and the grey troll let his back pack fall to the ground. He moved forward, Branch lifted a hand, he pushed the guru hard forcing him to stumble back and said in a low threatening voice. “Don’t you ever call me that again you self obsessed peacock because if you do I will make you regret it! You don’t know why I am grey! You don’t know a thing about me! You have your head so far up your own arse that you don’t see anything else! Don’t ever presume to judge me until you’ve taken a good long look at yourself. At least I know what love is, you wouldn’t know what it was if it walked right up to you and told you what it was because the only troll you see is yourself.” As he finished saying this Branch pushed him over onto the ground and stood over Creek, his bright teal eyes were narrowed to slits and there was some kind of deep emotion in those eyes which the purple troll couldn’t understand in the slightest but it made him feel like the lowest worm. “I hate you Creek! I hope one day you discover you have a soul mate and they hate you with the passion I do!”

The grey troll turned away from his tormenter, he gathered up his backpack, Branch walked away from Creek then stopped a short way from him, without turning around he said ever so softly to the other troll. “Maybe someday you’ll know what it is like to be grey and then you’ll understand when I say you will regret today with everything within you.” There was something about these softly said words from Branch which cut Creek to the quick and made him start to be sorry about everything which he had said to the other troll, but before he could say anything more the survivalist walked away into the forest leaving him behind.

 

It was three days after this that Creek went through the ritual to discover if he had a soul mate, though such connections were rare every troll was tested, and it was through this ritual that he discovered that did indeed have a soul mate. The old male spiritual troll who had taken Creek through the ritual settled down on the floor of the pod opposite him cross legged as the purple troll was and then he held a special tea out to the purple troll saying to him. “Tonight you need to drink this tea before bed, it will give you a dream of the one who is your soul mate do you understand Creek?”

“Yes Willow I understand. Thank you.” As he said this the guru accepted the tea from the older troll and stashed it in his hair.

That night before bed Creek brewed the tea, as the spiritual troll waited for it to be ready he wondered who his soul mate might be and as he thought about this there was a combination of hope and fear warring in the purple troll at this moment. The guru took a deep breath, he let it out trying to calm himself before bed, once Creek felt more tranquil he drank the tea and then went to bed. As he dreamt the purple troll found himself walking through a misty space, suddenly he screamed as the floor under him gave way, the grey mist curled around him grabbing hold of his arms, legs, waist, neck and hair pulling them tight. Creek felt panic stabbing through him, it was like he all the air was being squeezed out of him by this mist and yet it appeared so fragile. Slowly teal blue light in long spiralling tendrils with leaves and royal flowers flowed forward, they touched the mist which lessoned it’s hold slightly and allowed the guru to suck in a much needed breath. “Soul mate, are you there?” Creek questioned to the darkness around him.

“Soul mate! Don’t make me laugh.” The voice though male was one he couldn’t recognise and it was filled with spite. “You’re a parasite! Who’d want to a soul mate to a troll like you? You’re like poison, you kill everything you touch and destroy love…Why would I want to be your soul mate?”

The grey mist tightened on him again, causing Creek to choke slightly, fear raced through him, but despite this he managed to say to this hidden troll. “Who are you? Please I need to know.”

There was a cold laugh, before he asked. “Are you begging? How glorious. Who am I…I am your punishment. Try and find me if you can all mighty guru…That’s if you’re brave enough or maybe it’s foolish enough little poison.” It was here that the dream came crashing to an end, Creek sat up in bed gasping for breath, the purple troll wrapped his arms around himself and shivered violently. That word poison rang in his head over and over again, Creek shivered again he felt absolutely horrible like his soul mate had just reached into his soul and raked claws through his soul.

The purple troll could feel his bond to his soul mate, but it was cold totally unwelcoming, he tentatively reached towards it on a spiritual level and the spiritual troll was instantly hit back with enough force to knock the wind out of him. Whoever he was connected to on a soul level was clearly very strong on a spiritual level, Creek had never known that aside from old Willow there was another spiritual troll in the tribe and the idea that there was another troll like him filled him with joy. The purple troll got up from his bed, he dressed, then went about his day, he was with the snack pack when suddenly the guru felt the presence of his soul mate, the purple troll knew that he had to follow that presence and so Creek said to his friends. “Excuse me.”

After he said this the purple troll quietly walked away from the snack pack, they were aware that their friend had a soul mate and that this might make him act a little strangely until the two of them came together so they watched him walk away without saying anything to the other troll. Creek closed his eyes, he could feel it his presence, gentler than it was now, like a troll desperately seeking water the purple troll followed this gentler trail and eventually he found himself in front of some leaves not far from the troll tree. Carefully the guru moved the leaves to one side, he noticed that there was what appeared to be a cave entrance in front of him, the presence’s path led into here and the spiritual troll was not about to give up following this gentler part of his soul mate’s presence. 

Quickly Creek went back to his pod, he grabbed a troll lantern, then hastily made his way back to the cave, he lit the pod and then stepped into the darkness of the cave. This gentle presence guided him on through the darkness, then slowly blue swirling leafy and floral tendrils started to appear drawn on the walls of the cave in exquisite minute detail, petering off into dots only to reappear again. Then the tendril formed a small loop going around a rose, in shades of lavender and teal green, the rose was executed beautifully, it looked so real that you could almost imagine that it could be picked from the wall. Creek stood staring at this beautiful rose for a few moments, before moving on, again the rose appeared in another loop, then another, in the next loop there was a blue leaf, in two shades of blue teal and royal blue. After this was a spiral of the blue tendril in which was the outline of a two tone blue troll from side on, the spiritual troll realised with growing awe this had to be his soul mate and that he had drawn all which he was seeing around him. His soul mate’s hair was royal blue, the skin was teal, as Creek looked closer he could see there were closed eyes on the figure and a small smile was on his lips. 

The tendril going up the troll flowed away across the roof of the cave, Creek’s eyes widened as a second and third tendril joined his blue one, in the middle of the roof of the cave coming up from the other wall the three of them held in their grasp a bleeding blue heart. One tendril was ugly thorny black with swirling mist like grey parts coming away from it, the third one was purple in exactly his skins shade, there were flowers on this tendril in the two shades on his hair, from this vine grew sickly green fruits dripping a deep purple substance into the back thorny tendril which grew stronger in these places. The black tendril wove around the blue one cutting it up strangling the life out of it, until the blue became nothing more than a thin line. This thin blue line came up it formed a spiral in the centre of which was a glowing blue heart all around this spiral was a black tendril circle which had long sharp pointed spikes pointing in towards it. Above this was a large sickly green fruit, a coming from the purple vine, it was dripping a large drop of the purple substance towards the dark tendril circle.

Creek looked away from this horrible and heart wrenching image down towards the ground of the cave, as the guru did this he noticed something carved into the rock. Quickly Creek got down on his knees, he moved the lantern closer to the wall, sure enough there were troll runes carved into the rock. Seeing this caused the purple troll to take a deep breath, it was very rare to see troll runes now, in fact Creek hadn’t known any other troll knew how to write in them anymore. The guru ran his fingers carefully along the rock under the runes reading them out to himself as he did so. “Deep within lies one last shard of hope, I have protected it from the poison of Creek and shall continue you to do so until it can flower once again. Perhaps is will flower within the care of the one who is not the mate of my soul but in the hands of the gentle Poppy.”

When the purple troll came to the end of the words, he drew his hand away from the wall of the cave as though the words carved there had burnt him and sat back on his heels. “Who are you?” Creek found himself asking his voice full of conflicting emotions.

The purple troll picked up his lantern again, he stood up, Creek then moved into the middle of the cave were the blue tendril, met the purple and the black, tendrils, it was here where he sat down into the lotus position. Slowly but surely, he regulated his breath the guru called up all his bravery and reached for his bond to his soul mate ever so gently trying not to upset him this time. The spiritual troll was glad when this time he wasn’t met with the same unwelcome feeling as before, instead there was some warmth and encouraged by this Creek trying to show he meant no harm through the bond sent forward a peaceful feeling. There was a slow response to this, behind his eyelid the purple troll could see those blue tendrils from the dreams and the pictures appearing. Carefully the guru spiritually and mentally reached out towards it, but before he could gain any hold on this tendril, the black thorny one shot out from the darkness the tendril grabbed the blue tendril and it strangled it into nothing more than a few orbs of blue light, before Creek was suddenly shoved away from his soul mate bond and back into himself.

As soon as this happened the spiritual troll’s eyes popped open, he frowned deeply, it was quite clear that his soul mate was going to prove to be very hard to win over, but Creek was nothing if not a determined troll and he couldn’t help but feel that he had to try to win his soul mate over after all they were meant to be as one. The sooner the guru felt that the sooner he could find out which troll was the one who was his soul mate the quicker he could turn his awesome good looks and amazing personality onto him.


	2. Chapter two

Chapter two:

Creek had tried night after night and day after day to reach his soul mate again but there was nothing, just a cold void, then one night after trying for as long as he had the purple troll finally managed to reach him in his dreams at long last and then the voice from the first dream came again. “Hello poison, I’ve felt you trying to reach me…It appears that you wouldn’t take my hint and leave me alone. So what do you want? Come to drop a little more venom onto my tortures soul?”

“No, I don’t want to hurt you, I just want to know you a little.” Creek said softly standing in a circle of light surrounded on all sides by the pitch black darkness, the spiritual troll was looking all around him trying to find out where the voice had come from.

“What else do you need to know other than you poison my life?” As he asked this the black thorny mist like tendrils flowed forward towards the purple troll out of the darkness, instantly he reacted to this Creek pushed forward his own purple energy and used it to grab hold of these tendrils gently but firmly.

Once the spiritual troll felt sure that he both had hold of all the darkness and that no more was going to come towards him Creek addressed his hidden soul mate again. “I don’t want to poison your life. If I have hurt you then I apologies to you…If you know me, which you clearly do, then you know I wouldn’t apologies unless I meant it.” There was a long silence, then slowly a teal blue tendril flowed forward, leaves and buds along it, the flowers opened up showing royal blue flowers and as it came towards him the darkness tried to grab hold of it. Creek responded quickly, he used his energy to hold the darkness back from it, then gently he used his energy to gently grasp hold of the tendril, forming his own purple one and embracing it. “This is the real you…So gentle…So handsome.” Creek watched awed as the blue tendril wound around his forming a spiral with it, at the tip of the spiral is a bud, it opens to show a flower one which is teal blue and royal blue, next to it opens a purple, bright blue and aqua green flower. The two flowers filled the area with beautiful blue and purple light, thanks to this Creek could just make out the shadowed form of his soul mate in front of him, he was side on and so well hidden in the darkness that the spiritual troll couldn’t make out any of his features at this time.

His grey blue eyes were drawn back to the flower as the purple one produced half a crystal heart with a jagged edge which floated just a above this flower, the blue flower followed closely behind the purple with a blue crystal half heart with a ragged edge. Also floating up. In the air above the two flowers the two halves of the heart came together, there was a momentary bright flash of white light and then the heart was one heart the jagged edge was gone, now instead blue and purple was woven together in intricate swirls across the surface of the heart and it beat not with two heartbeats separate heartbeats but two as one. 

Suddenly a sound left the other troll, one which surprised Creek and caused him to look once more at his soul mate, this noise was a single strangled sob and the purple troll wanted to say something to him but he didn’t know what to say to him. Then the guru realised his purple energy wasn’t holding the thorny tendrils they were changing going blue and winding around his energy forming more swirls of blue and purple which bloomed with the same light shedding flowers. Creek gulped hard, he knew this wasn’t going to be easy, that whoever this troll was had little reason to trust him but at the same time the spiritual troll knew this was his soul mate and he was precious to precious to lose. 

The purple troll took a deep breath, he gathered together all of his bravery, then stepped forward towards the figure hidden in the darkness and said softly. “Won’t you come out? Won’t you let me see you? Please.” Creek held a hand out towards him mentally urging him to take it and come out at last.

“No, you’ll just poison me again!” The other male troll said to him his voice full of tortured pain.

The sound of that voice cut through Creek like a knife and he hated the sound of it. “I won’t! I swear it!”

“Very well poison, if you can be kind to me outside of these dreams then I will come to you and we will talk again.”

“But I don’t know who you are.” Creek said desperation entering his voice as he said this.

“Exactly, good luck poison I think you are going to need it.” As he spoke these final words, the connection to his soul mate was ruthlessly closed off, Creek sat bolt up right in bed, his eyes were wide and his mind was running at a full speed as he thought over the task he’d been set by his soul mate.

 

So it was that Creek, tried to be as kind as he could to every troll he met, but still his soul mate was as distant as ever and the purple troll was starting to feel his task was going to be impossible to complete. He also began to realise that there was one troll who could have really used this kindness Branch, the purple troll felt even more ashamed about his earlier behaviour towards the survivalist than he had before and he couldn’t help but think that he owed him more than a simple apology, Creek knew that Branch deserved his understanding and kindness when they next met. The spiritual troll promised himself and his unknown soul mate he would be kind to the other troll and he would try to be understanding towards Branch as he could.

Later that day the guru entered one of his favourite clearings to meditate in, Poppy was in it picking flowers, Creek went to greet her when a red and blue stiped snake launched itself out of the undergrowth at the princess. “POPPY!” The purple troll screamed at her in warning, Creek started to run towards the pink troll despite known he wouldn’t reach her in time to do anything to help the princess. Then a grey blur pushed the pink troll to one side, it then jumped up, the grey troll landed hard on the snake’s head, quickly Branch bounced back off of the snake’s head, he landed on the grass before the snake, it eyes him for a moment, the survivalist growled at it angrily and realising that this troll would be too hard to defeat it then slunk away in defeat. Once he felt sure that the snake was gone the survivalist came over to Poppy, she was sitting in the grass looking at him as though Branch were a hero out of some troll legend. When the grey troll reached the princess put his back pack down to one side of them, then carefully knelt down beside her in the grass and addressed the pink troll in an unusually gentle voice. “Are you alright?”

The princess was surprised by how soft his voice was and it took her a few moments before she managed to say to the other troll. “I think so. Thank you Branch.”

“Your welcome.” The survivalist then stood up, he held a hand out to her, the princess took it and Branch helped her up onto her feet with absolutely no effort.

Creek didn’t know why but seeing the two trolls holding hands made him feel absolutely furious, he didn’t want the princess holding the hand of the grey troll, he wanted to be the one Branch to be holding his hand. As the guru realised what he had just been thinking Creek wanted to bang his head against something, he couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid or so blind when it came to what he was feeling for Branch. 

Poppy very reluctantly released the hand of the survivalist, as she did this the purple troll walked over to them, he smiled at the pink troll and then said to her. “You had me really worried there.” Creek said truthfully to his friend, glad to see that she was indeed alright after such a near thing.

“I’m fine thanks to Branch.” Poppy said reassuringly as she turning a wide smile onto the grey troll who blushed slightly when the princess did this.

Not liking the way which the pink troll was looking at Branch, Creek quickly turned his attention to the other male troll and said to him. “I had no idea you could move like that.”

The survivalist frowned at him with confusion as he asked the purple troll. “Was that a compliment Creek?”

“It was.” The guru assured him earnestly.

Branch gave him a surprised look. “Well that has to be a first.”

“Yes well, it was deserved.” Creek told him as casually as possible not wanting to show to the other troll that he was still seething after Poppy’s earlier actions.

“I’m sorry about your flowers.” The grey troll told the princess, clearly meaning the words as he looked down at the scattered and flattened flowers.

“Hey I’m still here and that’s more important than flowers! I’ll go and pick some more flowers from around the troll tree were it is safer.” After she said this in her usual upbeat tone of voice, Poppy then turned away from the two male trolls and skipped off back towards the troll tree.

The survivalist shook his head slightly, before he said to Creek with clearly traces of amusement in his voice. “I wish I could recover from such things so quickly.”

The purple troll chuckled openly and then admitted to the other troll. “Trust me we all do.”  
Branch looked at the other troll next to him and before he said to him. “Are we having a civilised conversation?”

“Yes we are, you see someone dear told me I need to be a little kinder…I realised once I started doing as they told me to that I should have well…What I said to you that day it was far to cruel…But what you wished on me has happened…I…I have a soul mate…He hates me, he doesn’t want me, he calls me poison…I’m starting to realise that he might actually be right, that I am a poison destroying other trolls…I deserved everything you threw at me that day…” As Creek spoke he felt so horrible, he felt like something was cutting him up inside and the purple troll was starting to think that maybe his soul mate really was right he was a terrible poison.

The guru jumped with surprise as a hand took his, startled Creek turned his head to look at Branch, the grey troll was looking forwards, then he turned slowly turned towards the spiritual troll and looked at him. For the first time in his whole life Creek realised that the survivalist had the most vibrant teal blue eyes which the he had ever seen, slowly the guru lifted one hand, he cupped the cheek of Branch and said softly with awe in his voice. “You have such beautiful eyes…Such a beautiful shade of teal blue…Why did I never notice them before…?”

“Maybe because for the first time you are seeing me Creek.” Branch said very gently in return.  
“I’m sorry for everything I said…I don’t want to poison any troll ever again. I know a stupid simple apology won’t make up for those terrible things I said…”

The grey troll interrupted him saying to Creek gently but firmly as he squeezed his hand slightly. “It’s alright, I wasn’t exactly kind in return. We were both to blame Creek, we should both try to be kinder to each other from now on.”

“Yes, kinder…He’s already taught me something, I just wish…I don’t deserve to wish anything of him.” The spiritual troll said very softly his voice trembling slightly with the sadness he couldn’t help but feel.

“Creek, it will be alright.”

The purple troll looked at the survivalist, he was utterly shocked Creek couldn’t believe those words had just come out of Branch. “Did you just say something positive?”

“I did. Take my advice Creek go home and get some rest.” With this said the survivalist took his hand out of Creek’s, the spiritual troll reluctantly took his hand away from Branch’s cheek, when he had done this the grey troll turned away from him and then started to walk away from Creek.

The guru shook himself out of his state of shock and called out after Branch. “Thank you!” The grey troll didn’t turn around, he lifted a hand to show to the purple troll that he had heard him and walked off into the forest. Creek decided to take the advice of the other troll, he would go home and get some rest hopefully when he slept tonight his soul mate would come to him and would have something more positive to say to him than he had the last few times they had met.


	3. Chapter three

Chapter three:

As he slept that night Creek found himself falling through darkness, he heart lurched in fright within him, panic swarmed in on him and just as the guru felt sure fear was going to overwhelm him blue tendrils suddenly came up from beneath him and they carefully stopped him falling. The purple troll watched with growing surprise as one of the teal blue tendril reached out towards him and then gently stroked over his cheek in a gentle gesture. “I have been watching you closely Creek.” Said the voice of the as always hidden male troll from the darkness beyond this tendril.  


“And?” As Creek asked this he could hear his voice shaking slightly and the guru felt a little ashamed of the fact that this unknown troll could have such control over his emotions in such a short amount of time.

“I am proud of you Creek.” The voice said with pride clear in his voice as he spoke the words.  


The purple troll let out a breath which he hadn’t even known he had been holding and then said to him. “I am glad I have made you proud and thank you for coming to meet me as you promised you would.”

“I always keep my word.” He told him seriously.

As his hidden soul mate spoke these words Creek knew from his tone of voice that he meant them. “I am glad to hear that, would you come out now my soul mate…Please?”

“Soon I shall come out of the shadows I promise, give me time to learn to trust you, until now you have been my poison…” The words of the other male troll trailed off into silence.

Creek sighed, he really did want to see his soul mate but he could understand the other troll’s reluctance to meet him just yet. “I understand why you are asking this of me. I am not used to having to wait for something, but you my soul mate I am sure you will be well worth waiting for.”  


“I hope you will think so when we finally do meet. I will let you sleep now Creek.” 

As the tendrils started to gently lay him down into the velvety soft darkness the guru felt a spike of fear go through him and said quickly to his soul mate. “Wait please!”

“Yes, what is it Creek?” He asked with clear confusion.

The purple troll licked his lips, then he dredged up his bravery one more time and asked the other male troll in a voice which Creek was pleased to hear sounded a lot steadier than he thought it would be. “Will you call me soul mate please?”

There was silence for a few moments and then softly from the shadows came the words which the spiritual troll had been longing to hear from the other troll since their very first meeting. “My soul mate.”

Creek closed his eyes as a feeling of peace washed over him, this was closely followed by a feeling of ecstasy which caused him to let out a happy sigh before he said to his soul mate. “Thank you, will I see you again soon?”

“Yes, my soul mate you will.” With these words, the blue tendrils completely withdrew and the purple troll feel in to a deep peaceful sleep.

When the guru woke in the morning he felt absolutely at peace for the first time in days, Creek smiled to himself and allowed himself to lay in his bed for a few moments just enjoying this wonderful feeling. After a while the purple troll got out of bed, he got ready for the day ahead and then made his way out into the troll tree ready to enjoy the day ahead. Creek was determined that even though his soul mate had come to visit him after he kept his word to be kind, that he would continue to be kinder to the other trolls especially Branch.

 

It was three days after this when the spiritual troll came across Branch in the forest not far from the troll tree, the grey troll was kneeling in the grass and he was diligently picking rust weed, which even Creek knew was used to make cures for headaches. The purple troll didn’t know why but he found his eyes drawn to the fingers of the survivalist as he worked and before he could even think about what he was doing the guru found himself walked towards him. When Branch heard something coming in his direction grey troll stopped working and turned his head to look over his shoulder at Creek. The purple troll smiled at Branch, as he finished walking over to him, the gaze of the survivalist didn’t leave him and the guru found he rather liked having those amazing teal eyes trained on him as they were Slowly Creek got down on his knees in the grass in front of the grey troll so that they were now both kneeling down, he reached forward towards the grey troll gradually, wanting to give the other troll time to stop him if he wanted to and then the guru took his hands gently into his.

Slowly the purple troll lifted Branch’s hands, Creek ran his fingers over the grey hands inspecting every inch of them and after he had been doing this for a while the grey troll asked him gently. “What are you doing Creek?”

“Looking at your hands…You have such strong capable hands…” The guru said softly but distractedly, he couldn’t understand why he didn’t want to but didn’t want to let go of these hands just yet. Reluctantly the purple troll looked up from hands his grey blue eyes met the bright teal of Branch, as their eyes met an idea suddenly made itself known to Creek, he kept his eyes locked with those of the survivalist as he lifted one hand and kissing the back of it, before doing the same to his other hand.

The eyes of the grey troll went wide with surprise and he gasped with wonder, but didn’t try to remove his hands from Creek’s taking this as a good sine the purple troll did the same again before he said softly to Branch. “I keep discovering new and wonderful things about you Branch. I wish I’d taken the time to slow down and see them before. You have a scar just here.” The guru said softly running a finger over it.

“I cut myself years ago quiet badly, you’re the first troll to ever notice it. May I have my hands back so I can carry on with my work?”

The purple troll shook himself out of his revelry, he very reluctantly let go of Branch’s hands and the survivalist turned back to his work, Creek watched him picking the herbs for a few moments before he said to the other troll curiously. “Why are you harvesting so much rust weed?”

“I am gathering it now because it cannot be found all year round, I like to make sure I have plenty and also because the loud bass of the music played at the parties which the trolls hold regularly gives me a headache some of the time.” The grey troll explained to his companion.

“I didn’t realise that the parties gave you headache.”

Branch gave the other troll a shrug and then said to him. “They don’t all the time, it’s just when they get really loud.”

Creek gave him a nod of understanding as he spoke to the other troll. “So it’s not just the threat of the Bergen’s that make you dislike the parties that Poppy holds…Do you like music and singing at all Branch?” The grey troll gave a single nod, but said nothing in answer to this question, so the guru curious to hear what the survivalist had to say about his preference for music and son, so he gently touched the shoulder of the other troll and said softly to him. “What kind of music do you like to listen to Branch?”

After a few moments, the survivalist answered this question. “I like ballads as well as slower, gentler music. I do like the occasional pop song but not often, if I am drawn to one it is mostly for the lyrics.”

“Ballads huh? Sounds like you might be quiet the closet romantic.” Creek said teasingly to other troll with a sparkle in his eyes.

When he said this Branch stopped working, he looked at the purple troll, who was surprised to see laughter in those bright teal eyes as the other troll said teasingly. “Who says it’s a maybe?”

Creek couldn’t stop his mouth from falling open or from staring at the other troll as he said in complete shock. “Did you just tease me?”

“Maybe.” Branch said with a slight smile which had been caused by the shock of the other troll before he returned to his work.

Without commenting on this rare smile from the survivalist the spiritual troll started to help the other troll harvest the rust weed, the grey troll said nothing in response to Creek doing this, instead he wordlessly accepted this freely offered help which was saying a lot for the usually independent Branch. After a while of working quietly next to Creek, the grey troll turned to look at the pile of rust weed they had collected then said to the guru. “I have enough now, thank you for the help Creek.”

“Your welcome, I’m glad that you let me help you.” Creek told him with nothing more than honesty for the other troll, after he said this Branch carefully gathered the rust weed into his back pack so that he could carry it back to the bunker, while he did this the purple troll spoke to him again. “I took your advice I rested…He came to me last night my soul mate, he was…He was…He was kind to me Branch…He finally called me soul mate rather than poison, it felt…I can’t tell you how wonderful it felt to me.” As he spoke the voice of the spiritual troll slowly became a whisper, one which was wistful and at the same time very sad. Creek suddenly gave a derisive snort, he shook himself, he shot Branch a small half smile before the survivalist could say a word to him the guru spoke to him for a third time. “Look at me burdening you with all of this, when I promised myself I was going to be more kind to other trolls and try to think of myself less often.”

Branch looked at Creek in silence for a few moments before saying gently to the other troll. “There are times in life when a trouble needs to be shared, sometimes when that time comes you find yourself sharing those worries with the one troll you think may understand. I have suffered pain, a lot of it, I think deep down you have always known that, so you knew that if you told me what had been happening to you that I would understand and I do. Do you want my advice Creek?”

The answer to this question was a soft simple. “Yes please.”

“Don’t give up on him, don’t give up on yourself, you both need time, time to heal and to see each other not as the one being poisoned or the one doing the poisoning. Trust him Creek and I am sure he will trust you in return.” After Branch said this the purple troll gave him a nod, he said nothing in response to these words, but the survivalist could tell he had taken heed of them and he felt no need for thanks for giving this advice it had been freely given. Creek turned, he walked away from Branch heading back to the troll tree his mind was turning the words of the grey troll over and over again, he could see the wisdom in them and the guru felt his determination rising once more, he would not give up.


	4. Chapter four

Chapter four:

Creek had felt the presence of his soul mate over the past few nights, though the other troll had not said anything to him the purple troll had felt the change in his soul mate’s presence it was much gentler than it had been before and the guru revelled in this new and wonderful feeling. Creek hoped that at some point they would get to talk to each other again, they had a lot of things they needed to talk about. The spiritual troll held hope that this time their conversation would be more positive than it had been before and that soon his soul mate would trust him enough to come out of the darkness to meet him face to face at last.

It was late afternoon, Creek had been sitting in one of his favourite spots in the forest meditating when he heard a small noise, frowning with displeasure he opened his eyes, the spiritual troll found that it was not member of the snack pack standing in front of him as he had rather been expecting it to be, he was instead being eyed up by a large blue and green striped forest tiger. The guru felt panic rising in him, he wanted to scream but Creek knew that with this predator this was a very bad idea, as would be any sudden movements. The mind of the purple troll was racing, he was desperately looking for any way to get away from the forest tiger or to for some way at least be able to protect himself from the attack he was sure was coming.

Just as the cat started to make a move towards Creek, Branch came out dashing of the shadows of a nearby plant, as he ran the grey troll was whipping his hair towards the striped tiger, he hit it very hard on the side. Instantly the forest tiger yelped in pain, it turned in the grey troll’s direction, it hissed at him, Branch glared at it and then growled very deeply at the tiger. Creek had never heard a noise like this come out of the other troll before now, he was clearly furious and at the same time being protective of him. This made the guru feel deeply touched and embraced that he hadn’t been able to defend himself from the striped tiger strait away. Now though the spiritual troll knew that thanks to Branch distracting the forest tiger from him he had a chance to help the other male troll fight the striped tiger. Quickly Creek got onto his feet, he rushed towards the together, once the purple troll was close enough he whipped his hair out towards it and struck the tiger on a leg also growling at it why he did so. Seeing him do this made Branch look to him for a moment, the survivalist smiled ever so at Creek slightly, then he whipped the tiger with his hair again and so it was that side by side the two trolls fought the tiger. 

As the they fought the tiger it took a swipe at Creek, it almost caught the purple troll who just about managed to jump back out of its reach before the claws could make contact with him. Seeing this caused a shout of anger and distress to leave Branch, the grey troll doubled his attacks finally driving the stripy tiger away from the two of them. As soon as the survivalist was sure that it was gone at last he dashed over to Creek, when Branch reached the guru he grabbed his shoulders, looked closely at the other male troll and then said to him with urgency clear in his voice. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, Branch I’m fine the forest tiger missed me.” Creek assured him touching one of his arms to reassure the other male troll, suddenly the grey troll shuddered, realising that the other troll was extremely distressed by what had almost happened to him the guru quickly put his arms around Branch and gently brought him closer to him in a hug. As he did this the survivalist removed his hands from the purple troll’s shoulders, closing them around the back of the other male troll. After a few moments of holding Branch like this Creek then very carefully moved the head of the other male troll so that his head was turned to one aide with his ear pressed against his chest over his heart. “I’m alright.” Creek said to him softly trying to reassure him to the best of his abilities, Branch let out a sigh of contentment as he listened to the other troll’s heart, the grey troll found that doing this was very soothing to him. Very slowly the two trolls knelt down in the grass, neither of them wanted to move and so they just knelt in the grass like this. For how long Creek and Branch were like this the two of them didn’t know but it felt perfect to both of them but they both knew that at some point they would have to release each other.

So it was that very reluctantly Creek released the head of the other troll and Branch gradually moved his head away from his chest but still stayed close to him. “I’m sorry it’s just…” The voice of the survivalist trailed off and the grey troll swallowed hard unable to say anything more about why he had been so panicked by the thought of the other troll being hurt by the tiger.

Wanting to offer him comfort again the guru placed a hand onto one of the other troll’s shoulders, he squeezed it and then said to him. “It’s alright, you were frightened by the attack and I’ll be honest so was I. Thank you for saving me from the forest tiger.”

After a few moments of silence Branch eventually spoke to Creek. “Your welcome…I’m sorry you felt the only way to calm me down was to…” 

The purple troll didn’t let the other troll get any further as he interrupting him by quickly saying to the other troll. “I didn’t have to I wanted to, I truly did so don’t think you made me.”

“That is good to know.” The grey troll said feeling grateful that Creek had understood his reactions to what had happened to them both.

The guru found himself looking closely at Branch’s grey skin for the first time and as he looked closely at the skin of the other male troll he realised that there was a slight grey blue tinge to his skin. Noticing this slight amount of colour to the other troll intrigued the spiritual troll a great deal and the guru couldn’t help but wonder what shade of blue Branch’s skin might actually be. Slowly Creek drew his eyes up towards the black hair of the other troll, he found himself feeling very intrigued by his hair, did it like the skin have some hidden colour when looked at closely? Was it soft? The survivalist’s hair didn’t look as well kept as troll hair usually was, but after his last few encounters with Branch Creek knew that this troll was the embodiment of the saying appearances can be deceptive.

The more time which the purple troll spent looking at the hair of the more that Creek really wanted to be able to touch the hair of the other troll. He was well aware that this is an extremely intimate act between two trolls and to the spiritual troll it didn’t feel at all right to ask to ask Branch to let him touch his hair just so he could satisfy his curiosity about it. The more time which the purple troll spent around the other male troll the more he found that he wanted to discover all of Branch’s secrets. There was another part of the guru which was starting to find himself drawn more and more to the grey troll, this part of Creek made him feel slightly ashamed because he had a soul mate and shouldn’t feel so drawn to Branch. 

Slowly the two male trolls got up onto their feet, they didn’t say anything to each other, neither of them had any words to say to each other all of the things which they wanted to. So instead of saying anything to each other the two trolls walked quietly back towards the village, once they got closer to the village Branch turned off towards his bunker heading home. Creek stopped walking, he stood watched the grey troll as he walked away from him, the guru wasn’t sure why but he really hated seeing the survivalist walk away from him.

Once the grey troll was out of sight the spiritual troll made his way to his pod, when Creek arrived there he noticed that there was a folded up piece of paper tucked under his door. The spiritual troll froze, his eyes glued to the piece of paper under his door, he was stunned and confused, as he wondered what this was and if maybe this might be from his soul mate. Creek knew that there was only one way to know what this was for sure, so slowly the guru knelt down, he carefully pulled the piece of paper out from under the door, once the spiritual troll had removed the piece of paper from under the door opened he opened it up and as his grey blue eyes took in what was on the paper their eyes widened. On the paper was the teal blue tendrils with the royal flowers coming up from the bottom edge of the paper, from the lop edge flowed forward the purple tendril with its bright blue and teal green flowers, where the two of them met they were twined around each other and between them was a crystal like shard glowing with blue light. 

As he noticed the crystal share Creek instantly remembered what had been written in the cave under the pictures, this had to be the shard of hope his soul mate had spoken about. Quickly the purple troll scanned the paper again, then he noticed that in one corner was written in troll runes were the words. ‘One shard of hope, the beginning of the healing of my heart after so much darkness and poison almost destroyed it.’ As Creek read these word he felt hope filling him, smiling widely the guru carefully folded the piece of paper up and then made his way inside the pod. The purple troll felt that all in all today had been a very good day, but then any progress with his soul mate or Branch tended to make him feel that way.

Once he was inside his pod the guru sat down on one of the chairs, he unfolded the picture again and sat there looked at the picture. Creek couldn’t help but admire the artistry that the picture demonstrated and the purple troll found himself thinking about getting the picture framed. The more that Creek considered this idea the more that the guru liked the idea of framing this picture and then hanging it in his pod. The spiritual troll got up from his chair intending to find a safe place to store this picture until he could find a frame for it.

 

That night when Creek went to sleep he was surprised to find the glowing blue tendrils waiting for him, for a few moments the purple troll was so shocked he didn’t know what to say or do in response to this fact and it was in fact on of the tendrils coming up into his line of sight which finally broke Creek out of his stunned state. The guru watched closely as one of the flowers on the tendril opened up, it glowed with blue light and from this light formed the shard which had been in the picture Creek had received. Awe and wonder filled the purple troll, he looked around at the surrounding darkness, wondering if this meant what he hoped that it did. Then the voice of his soul mate came out of the darkness. “I am trusting you with this shard of hope. This Creek is the one last part of my heart which hasn’t given up to the darkness and poison which has been part of my life. Don’t make me regret entrusting this to you.”

“I won’t.” Creek promised meaning his vow with all of his heart.

“Good I will hold you to this promise. Go ahead take the shard and keep it close to your heart Creek.” The purple troll gently picked the crystal up in his hands, he drew it close to him and then held the blue crystal shard to his chest over his heart. The crystal glowed brightly in his hands for a few moments, then it slipped through his skin and Creek felt it within him next to his heart.

The purple troll closed his eyes, a blissful sigh left the troll, the feeling which doing this gave the spiritual troll was amazing, he couldn’t find a word to describe it, but Creek knew he didn’t want to ever let go of this feeling. Slowly the guru opened his eyes, he smiled around at the darkness around him and then addressed the other troll. “Does this mean that you are going to let me see you soon?”

“Yes…I will show you who I am, I hope that you will not be upset by which troll I am.”

“I will not be, you are my soul mate, the other half of myself and I long to meet you.”

“I never thought I would have a soul mate.” The voice of his soul mate admitted. “I was surprised when it was you…You’d never been a particularly bright spot in my life, until now.”

“How did you know about me before I knew of you?” Creek asked curiously, he very much wanted to know more about the other troll.

“I’m not an over spiritual troll, but I had felt something wasn’t right inside me for a long time and when I looked I found you…It wasn’t the best thing I had ever discovered, but it also wasn’t the worst.” Creek’s soul mate admitted his voice soft. “I should go now. Sleep well soul mate.”

“Thank you for coming to see me again tonight and I hope that you also sleep well.” With this said the spiritual troll drifted off into a deep and peaceful sleep.


	5. Chapter five

Chapter five:

Two days after this Creek came across Branch, he was laying in the long grass on his back the grey troll appeared to be watching the clouds floating passed in the sky. The guru walked over to him, Branch noticed the other troll out of the corner of his eyes but didn’t say anything to him. Creek also didn’t speak, instead he lay on the grass beside the survivalist and looked up at the sky with the other male troll. After a few moments of just laying quietly next to each other, the spiritual troll said very softly to Branch. “This is really relaxing…I didn’t think you ever relaxed.”

“I don’t usually but today was different…Today is the anniversary of the death of my grandma, you see like you I’m alone, but I lost all of my family to the Bergens by the time I was the age of six, I know your loss was later than mine.”

Creek couldn’t quite believe he was hearing this, is was horrible and tragic, he’d never known this about Branch and such a great loss explained why the grey troll was how he was now. “I’m so sorry I never knew what had happened to you, but I do understand how you must have felt. I only made it through losing my mother because of my spirituality…I can’t believe that you have been living alone since you were six. You must miss them all, I know I miss my mother and father every day, I do my best not to show it but it’s not easy.”

For a few moments, there was silence and then Branch said in a soft voice. “I never knew my mother and father, I have a picture of them and know their names but that’s all so it’s hard to miss them. I do miss my grandma though, she was the one to raise me after they died, so grandma was really my only parent. I’m sorry for your loss to…I remember Rain, she was a wonderful troll.”

Deciding to turn things away from the negativity of their losses Creek decided to talk to Branch about the progress he had been making with his still hidden soul mate. “I’m trying to give my soul mate time to trust me, it’s hard for me…I’ve never had to wait for something or found a troll who could resist me in the way he can…But things are becoming more positive between us and I am starting to hope that maybe we can become all that soul mates are meant to be.”

“I also hope that your soul mate and your self can form a good, loving and lasting relationship Creek. I can see he has taught you a lot in a short space of time, so your soul mate is clearly a very good troll for you. I am sure that if you continue to give him time, then he will learn you can be trust and then I am sure once he feels ready your soul mate will make himself known to you. Just make sure that you understand he has been in a lot of pain and has hidden from you to prevent himself feeling anymore pain”

“I know he has felt a lot of pain and that I have been the cause of quite a bit of it…” Creeks words faded away as guilt and regret surged through him.

Branch spoke to him again. “Have you asked him to forgive you for what you did to him?”

“I’ve said sorry, but no I haven’t asked that of him.”

“Maybe you should Creek, I’m not saying it would be an easy thing for you to do, but I can’t help but think that if he knows you at all, which I’m going to assume he does at least a little, then your soul mate is going to know that you asking him such a thing means that you are willing to put aside your pride and ego in order to make things right with him after the past.”

“Do you really think it could work?” Creek asked a tiny shard of hope entering his voice as the survivalist said this to him.

Branch shrugged even though he knew that the purple troll couldn’t see it and then said. “I don’t know him Creek, but I don’t think it could hurt for you to try do you?”

“No, I think you could be right. I will have to try what you have suggested.”

“I’m glad that I could help you with your soul mate.”

“Branch do you have a soul mate?” The spiritual troll asked with curiosity.

“Yes…But it’s complicated.” Branch said his voice a little sad.

When the grey troll said this Creek knew how he felt, he found himself wanting to help the other troll in the same way in which Branch had been selflessly helping him. As the guru thought about what he could do an idea came to him, the purple troll sat up, he looked down at the other troll, then slowly he moved around Branch so that now the spiritual troll was kneeling down in the grass next to the head of the grey troll. Slowly his eyes were focused on the jet black hair of the other troll, Branch watched what the other troll was doing without passing comment on it. The purple troll took a deep breath, he took hold of his courage and before he could stop himself asking Creek asked Branch as gently as possible. “May I touch your hair?”

The bright teal blue eyes of the grey troll looked up at the other troll in silence for a few moments, this would be a large act of trust between them, but somewhere deep inside Branch felt that he could trust Creek not to abuse being permitted to touch his hair and then said to the other troll. “Yes, you can touch my hair.”

The guru reached out, he gently touched the other troll’s hair, his eyes went wide as despite the ragged appearance of the black hair it was soft like velvet. Creek swallowed hard, he gently ran his fingers into the hair of the other troll, then the spiritual troll started to run his fingers through his hair, it was like running his fingers through silk and instantly the guru loved this feeling. All Creek wanted to do was keep to keep on running his fingers through Branch’s hair and he couldn’t help but feel that whoever became close enough to the grey troll to be able to do this with him every night would be a very lucky troll indeed.

The purple troll was so involved in stroking his fingers through the hair of the other troll that he hadn’t noticed that Branch had fallen asleep. When Creek did realise that the grey troll was asleep he couldn’t help but smile at the other troll, as the survivalist looked so different as he slept because the worry lines on his face has softened out in sleep and there was even a small smile on his lips. The spiritual troll very much wanted to kiss Branch right now, Creek had never felt the urge to do so this so strongly before now and it was very hard for the purple troll to resist doing this.

As the guru looked down at the other male troll he found himself feeling closer to Branch than he had for years, but at the same time Creek knew that he wanted to be more than friends with the other male troll. This desire as it had before now made the spiritual troll feel ashamed because he knew he had a soul mate who should be the centre of all of his romantic feelings and desires. For the very first time Creek found himself wishing that he had been less egotistical, because maybe if they had been, he might have stood a chance of being with Branch before now and this thought tortured him in a way which the purple troll would never have expected it to.

Slowly and reluctantly Creek stopped stroking the grey troll’s hair, he really wanted to lay down alongside the other troll and join him sleeping, but after the tigers attack the guru felt it was more important that he kept guard over Branch as he slept. As he did this the purple troll couldn’t help but feel touched that the survivalist had trusted him enough to go to sleep like this it spoke well of the progress they had made in their relationship. Creek had never had to guard another troll in his life before now, but protecting Branch like this felt right and not like a chore in the slightest. The purple troll wondered if the other male troll might return him doing this for him by watching over him when he next went to meditate in the forest and after he had thought about this Creek resolved to ask the Branch if he would protect him when he woke up.

After quite some time had passed slowly the bright blue eyes of the grey troll opened, he let out a deep contented sigh, Branch then focused his gaze on Creek and then blushed slightly as he realised as that the other troll had been sitting there watching over him as he slept. “Sorry I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”

“It’s alright Branch, you clearly needed the rest and I was more than happy to watch over you and make sure nothing harmed you while you slept.”

The blush on the grey troll’s cheeks went slightly deeper and he whispered. “Really?”

“Yes really…” Creek assured him with a smile for the survivalist and then he spoke to Branch again. “I was wondering if next time when I wanted to meditate on my own in the forest if you would watch over me as I did for you.”

Slowly Branch gave him a small shy smile as he said. “I would be honoured Creek. Do you have any idea when you might need me to do so?”

“Well if you would be willing then I’d like to meditate in the forest mid-morning tomorrow.”

“That’s not a problem in the slightest, I’ll meet you tomorrow at the in the centre of the troll village by the large orange mushroom. Creek would you like me to do this every time that you go to meditate in the forest?”

This offer from the grey troll caused Creek to blush brightly, but despite feeling rather happy and shy at the same time the purple troll said to the other troll. “Yes I would like that very much Branch, but are you sure that you wouldn’t mind coming with me? I meditate almost every day and I don’t want to be taking up too much of your time.”

Branch was thoughtful for a few moments before he said to the purple troll. “Well I am sure that you could meditate in some of the places where I need to go to gather stocks which would mean that we would both benefit from these outings.”

The purple troll carefully turned these words from the other troll over in his mind and then gave Branch a nod. “That sounds like a very good compromise. Shall we meet up every day at the mushroom in the centre of the troll village at mid-morning then?”

“Of course we will.” As Branch said this he sat up in the grass, after the grey troll did this side by side, the two male trolls stood up and just like last time they walked back towards the troll tree in silence. When it came time for them to part ways, instead of just walking away from the spiritual troll as he had last time the survivalist turned towards Creek and then said to him. “I’ll see you tomorrow at mid-morning then Creek.”

“Yes you will and thank you for agreeing to this Branch.”

“You are welcome, I think it is a good idea for both of us.” With this said the grey troll turned away, he walked off back towards his bunker. Knowing that he wouldn’t like watching Branch walk away from him, Creek started to make his way back to the troll tree. Once he arrived at the village the purple troll stopped off at one of the village shops and spent time looking around it for a frame for the picture his soul mate had sent him. Eventually the spiritual troll found one which he felt was right for the picture, the guru brought the picture frame, he then took it home, Creek put the picture into it and was extremely pleased to see that the picture fitted it perfectly. The spiritual troll took the now framed picture into his bedroom, he found just the right spot in this room and then hung it on the wall before heading to bed.

That night when he slept Creek called out to his soul mate wanting to talk to him and to take the advice he had been given by Branch. “My soul mate are you there?”

As soon as he asked this, the blue tendrils flowed forward from the darkness towards him and the voice of his soul mate answered him. “I am always here, even if I don’t answer every time.”

“I wanted to thank you for trusting me with the shard of hope. I also wanted to ask you to forgive me for hurting you as much as I have.” Creek had to admit that it was hard for him to ask his soul mate for that forgiveness, but once he had done so the purple troll felt a lot more relived and at peace then he had done before.

“I forgive you Creek.” The soul mate told him meaning his words as he spoke them.

The guru was glad to hear that he meant those words of forgiveness. “Thank you for your forgiveness soul mate, it means so very much. You have been teaching me a lot and helping me to connect with a troll, I never thought I could connect to. He has a lot of hidden depths, I will admit finding things out about him is wonderful and makes me want to know him more.”

“Oh who is that?” His soul mate asked not with anger or envy, but curiosity.

“His name is Branch, do you know of him?”

“Yes the grey troll of the tribe. I am glad to hear that you are becoming friends with him, he is just the kind of troll to bring you down to earth and ground you when you need it most.”  
Creek was stuck by how wise those words are, they sounded a little like the kinds of things which Branch had been saying to him lately. “I think you are right about him being a good grounding influence on me.”

“We all need that one friend who we know we can turn to for advice and considering the past the two of you have had it’s nice to hear that you are both getting on better.”

“I think so too. Well I shall let you go now, good night my soul mate.”

“Good night soul mate.” With these words the presence of his soul mate faded away into the background, then Creek fell into a deep and peaceful sleep.


	6. Chapter six

Chapter six:

When Creek woke the next day he was smiling widely, the purple troll felt much better for asking his other troll for forgiving him and he hoped that this would mean that his soul mate would finally come out of hiding. The guru was looking forward to meeting Branch today he hoped that thing would go as well between them as they had been the last few times. At mid-morning Creek came to the large orange mushroom at the centre of the village, Branch was standing here waiting for him and he was drawing quite a few strange looks from the other trolls. Quickly the spiritual troll made his way over to the grey troll, when he reached Branch Creek raised his hand in greeting and said to the survivalist. “Thank you for coming to meet me.”

“Your welcome.” As he spoke the grey troll was well aware that the two of them were being given strange looks by the rest of the trolls, but he ignored them and focused on the other troll instead. “If you are ready then I will show you the way to where I am going to be collecting my stocks today.”

“I am ready.” Creek told him with a large smile for the survivalist.

With a nod to the guru Branch set off into the forest with the purple troll at his side, they walked along together in companionable silence and eventually came to a clearing in the forest. The survivalist turned to the other troll, and then said to him. “I’m going to be collecting buttercup petals and some mint leaves, will this clearing be alright for you to meditate in Creek?”

“Trust me this is absolutely perfect Branch.” The purple troll quickly sat down cross legged on the grass of the clearing, Creek watched as the survivalist set to work, then the guru closed his eyes and then he settled down to meditate.

As the purple troll meditate Branch worked quietly but efficiently on gathering the buttercup petals and mint, at the same time the survivalist made sure to keep his sense trained for anything which might be harmful towards them. As Branch was finishing his work he also found some purple moss which he seldom found but was very useful to him in a variety of ways, so the grey troll carefully harvested it and then once this was done he then turned towards his quiet companion. 

The spiritual was still meditating, so the survivalist settled down on the grass not far from him and watched the other troll as he continued to meditate but at the same time continued to make sure to keep alert for any dangers. The grey troll had to admit that Creek looked very tranquil in this moment, there was something about seeing the guru like this which spoke to Branch, he felt the other troll looked rather handsome and he was glad of the purple troll’s trust. For the survivalist, it was very pleasant for him to find another troll who was able to be quiet like himself and somehow this fact made him feel closer to Creek than he had felt to another troll for a long time. Slowly the grey blue eyes of the spiritual troll opened they settled on Branch and Creek smiled at him as he said. “That feels so much better, thank you for being here to watch over me Branch.”

“Your welcome, I am glad that my observant nature was useful to you and that I could repay you for watching over me.” The grey troll told him meaning his words as he spoke them to the other male troll.

“Well, after the attack by the forest tiger last time I think that we are both wise to keep an eye on each other for a while.”

“Agreed. Besides I find that I like your company a lot more than I used to, I think that this is because we have come to a better understand of each other than we had in the past.”

The purple troll smiled at Branch before he said. “I’m glad to hear you say that and I have to admit that your company while I meditated was very nice as you didn’t disturb me. I also like your company when I don’t meditate and I think that you are right, I think our relationship is better than our old one.”

The survivalist gave Creek one of his small rare smiles and then said softly the spiritual troll. “Yes well, I know how it is to be interrupted when you are trying to do something you enjoy or find important.”

The purple troll smiled back as he said to the other troll. “I look forward to being able to do this again with you tomorrow.”

“I’ll admit so do I. So how are things between you are your soul mate going Creek?” Branch asked him gently, clearly genuinely wanting to hear how things were going between them.

The purple troll gave him a nod and a smile. “Thing are getting better I think, he gave me a shard of hope to hold close to my heart.”

“Wow, that has to be a good sign, what does it feel like?”

“Oh Branch…I can’t find the words to describe the feeling of it.” The expression on the face of the guru was one of awe, bliss and joy.

The grey troll seeing this expression on the face of the other troll wanted it to stay there and to see it again as it was amazing. “I’m glad to hear that he has by giving you that shard at least started to recognise you as his soul mate and trust you with something so precious.”

“I am really happy that he is starting to trust me at long last. I asked him to forgive me as you suggested, he did and I have to admit that I felt a lot better for asking him to forgive me. Whatever our past I am not going to let it affect our future together, which ever troll he turns out to be I am determined to forgive everything, put the past behind us and for us to go into the future together.”

The grey troll gave him a nod and then said. “All of that sounds very good to me, just make sure to put it into practice when you meet him at last.”

“I will do, Branch may I stroke your hair again?”

The grey troll was thoughtful for a few moments before he answered the question. “Yes, you can.”  
Creek moved his legs so they were stretched out in front of him, the purple troll lay his back against a rock and then patted his lap. “Come here then.”

Branch got up he walked over, the he lay in the grass and put his head into Creek’s lap, a few moments later the guru started running his fingers through his silky locks. After a few moments, the grey troll let out a deep satisfied sigh, his teal eyes met the grey blue of the other troll and he said. “I like this…It’s so relaxing.”

“Good I am glad that you finally found something which relaxes you after all these years. Would you mind if we do this every time I meditate with you?”

The grey troll answered this question quickly. “No I don’t mind, but in exchange I get to stroke your hair if you’ve been watching over me.”

Creek grinned at the survivalist and then said to him with a sparkle in his eyes. “You have a deal.” As he spoke the guru stroked his hair through the other troll’s hair, the teal blue eyes of Branch were starting to close and the purple troll smiled softly. A few moments later the grey troll had fallen asleep, though this had only happened twice now Creek was coming to love these moments between them, it showed that Branch was starting to trust him and this made the purple troll feel wonderful. The guru was starting to hope that maybe the survivalist would be his soul mate, it was in this moment that Creek realised he wanted this because he was falling in love with the other male troll. The purple troll wasn’t sure when he had started to fall in love with Branch, but he felt sure that it had all started after he had apologised to the grey troll and they had started to get closer to each other.

Just as the survivalist had not disturbed his meditating, Creek didn’t disturb Branch as he slept, he instead sat back watched him sleep and kept an eye and ear out for any dangerous animals or bugs which might come across the two of them. Some hours later the grey troll slowly woke, he looked up at the purple troll, Branch didn’t try to move his head from Creek’s lap instead he said softly to the other troll. “So do you think that your soul mate will come out of the shadows tonight?”

“I hope he will.” Creek said his voice wistful and hopeful at the same time.

“I can tell that you really want him to, but are you sure you are going to be able to hold onto that temper of yours Creek? After all I know what it can be like to be on the end of your temper.” Branch told the other troll trying to keep his voice gentle but knowing and not sound accusatory.  
The purple troll blushed brightly as the survivalist said this to him and then spoke to the other troll. “I can only do my best to control my temper when the time comes.”

With a nod to him Branch sat up, he stretched then stood up, Creek also came up onto his feet and the survivalist then spoke to the other troll. “Well I hope everything goes well for you Creek and that you won’t be disappointed or too angry with your soul mate. Just give your soul mate your understanding Creek, you have a big heart and you shouldn’t feel ashamed to share it with him or show it to your soul mate.”

“I promise I will give him my understanding, I will hold onto my temper and I will show him all of my heart. Thank you for all of your advice with my situation Branch.”

“Your welcome Creek.”

After he said this to the purple troll, the two male trolls then side by side made their way back towards the village and when it came time for them to part ways Branch looked at Creek and said. “Poppy is having a party tonight, so do you want to meet up tomorrow at the same time or do you want to meet a little later in the day?”

Creek thought about this for a few moments before he said to the other male troll. “I think that after the party tonight that mid-afternoon would be best as a meeting time tomorrow.” 

“Mid-afternoon tomorrow it is then. Have fun at the party Creek.”

“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow Branch.” With this said, the grey troll set off back towards the bunker intending to get ready to make it through the noise of the party tonight.

Unlike last time Creek watched the survivalist walked away, he liked it even less than he had last time and this feeling merely confirmed to him that he was in love with Branch. His hope that maybe the grey troll would be his soul mate grew in side him and Creek held this hope close to him wanting with all of his heart for this to be true.

 

When the party started that night the purple troll was in attendance, but to be honest he was not enjoying the party, his mind was to focused on his soul mate, so Creek decided that rather than stay at the party he would go home early and see if he could make contact with his soul mate instead. The purple troll made his way through the party looking all over for Poppy, when he located the princess Creek placed a hand onto her arm leant into the princess and then said to his friend loudly enough to be hear over the music. “I’m going to head home, I feel I need to connect with my soul mate, so I’ll say good night!”

“Alright Creek! Night!” Poppy yelled at him giving him a wide understanding smile.

The guru gave her a smile in return, he made his way out of the party, then to his pod, once Creek was inside he shut the door and let out a sigh of relief. The purple troll made his way to his bedroom, quickly got into bed, then he closed his eyes and was soon fast asleep. Creek could feel his soul mate he was distant, but there was some pain coming from the other troll, so the purple troll understood why the other troll was being distant. So it was that without thinking about it the spiritual troll brought forward his purple energy, it formed into the purple tendrils and he then sent them forward into the darkness towards his soul mate. There was a momentary resistance which quickly faded as the other troll realised that it was Creek trying to help him and the guru was thrilled when for the first time his soul mate accepted his help. The purple troll gently used his energy to dull the pain the other troll was feeling, the response to this from his soul mate was not verbal but a feeling of gratefulness came towards him and Creek couldn’t help but smile as this happened.

The guru reached more of his purple light into the darkness, it formed a shard of hope just like the one his soul mate had given him and Creek pushed it towards him saying gently. “A shard of hope in exchange for the one you gave me, part of me for you to hold close to your heart just as I have part of you close to my heart.”

The purple troll watched as his shard floated off into the darkness towards his soul mate, he could make out the outline of the other male troll again, but just like before he couldn’t really see any details of him. Creek watched feeling joyful as his soul mate’s hands came up, he cupped the shard with the upmost care and then his soul mate gently but firmly pushed it gently into his chest over his heart. Creek gasped with wonder as he could feel their connection grow stronger as this happened and then all at once he could hear two heartbeats which became one. This the guru he realised that this was just like the time when their tendrils had made the two halves of the heart which had beat as one. Creek could feel that the pain his soul mate had been feeling had lessened a lot thanks to what he had done and then the other troll spoke to him. “Thank you for your help.”

“Your welcome, after the pain I caused I am glad that I could help you to feel better instead of worse this time.”

“I know that you want me to come out of the shadows but…”

Before he could get any further Creek stopped his soul mate. “Not tonight, I would never make you tonight, you need to rest soul mate and heal. I do not want you to feel you have to stretch yourself by appearing to me tonight after the pain you were in tonight.”

“Thank you for your understanding Creek.” He said gratefulness.

“I promised Branch that I would do my best to understand you, show you all of my heart and not lose my temper when the time came for you to come out.”

“I am glad to hear that my soul mate.” When he spoke this time, the guru could hear the tiredness in his voice.

“Rest now.” The purple troll told his soul mate gently, after he said this to the other male troll Creek started to sing a lullaby, he felt it as the other male troll fell into a deeper sleep, the guru didn’t bring back his tendrils he left them and settled down to sleep keeping the connection to his soul mate open, offering him his help should he need it again during the night. As he slept Creek couldn’t help but feel wonderful after being able to help his soul mate for the first time, it gave him such a sense of accomplishment and hope that they were getting closer with every meeting.


	7. Chapter seven

Chapter seven:

The day after the party Branch came into the troll village at mid-afternoon, he could see that all around the clean-up from the party was still on going and the grey troll sat on the urge to sigh and roll his eyes. Instead he concentrated on heading to the large orange mushroom, as the survivalist got closer to the mushroom he noticed that Creek was standing there waiting for him. The purple troll smiled widely at him as the other male troll came towards him and seeing this the survivalist raised a hand in greeting a gesture which the guru quickly returned, when Branch reached Creek he addressed him. “Would you mind if I did some work before you meditate today?”

The guru answered the question quickly, wanting to reassure the other male troll. “No of course not, I’ll be happy to watch over you while you do so.”

The grey troll blushed a little as he said. “That means I will get to stroke your hair this time.”

“So it does.” Creek told him with a smile, the guru had to admit he was rather looking forward to having Branch stroke his hair and he could already feel anticipation building within him.

After this short discussion the two trolls left the village side by side, the other trolls were watching them again, this time they were a lot less shocked than they had been last time, but they could tell that something was going on between the two male trolls, however none of them felt brave enough to ask there two trolls what exactly this was.

Creek and Branch made their way into the forest in silence for a while, but after a while as they walked the purple troll smiled widely said to his companion. “I was able to help my soul mate last night.”

“Oh?” The survivalist asked curiously.

“Yes, it was wonderful, he was in pain last night and my soul mate actually let me help to dull the pain he was feeling.”

Branch raised both eyebrows at Creek as he spoke. “It really sounds like the two of you have become a closer over the past while.”

The smile on the face of the guru grew when the grey troll said this to him. “I’d like to hope so.”

A short while later the grey troll came to a halt in one part of the forest, Branch looked around the area and then said to Creek. “Yes this is the clearing.”

“I’ll just sit here and watch over you.” As the guru said this he indicated at a nearby rock.

The grey troll gave him a nod, the spiritual troll climbed on top of the rock, he sat down on it, from here Creek had a good view of the area was in and he would be able to act quickly if Branch needed him. After a few moments, the survivalist started to gather orange tea berries from one of the nearby bushes, he was careful in which ones of the berries he chose, making sure not to harvest those which were to over ripe or under ripe. Branch was quite clearly lost in his work, he felt able to be this lost in his work because he knew that Creek was guarding him, once he had enough of the berries Branch then moved onto gathering some pearl mushrooms from nearby. This was the first time that the spiritual troll had watched the grey troll work, he had never realised how hard Branch had worked before now or that he collected so many different and useful things. Knowing what he did now it made the guru wonder exactly the other troll kept in his bunker and if Branch did anything with what he gathered other than stocked it in the bunker in case the Bergen’s came for them.

After a while the grey troll finished his work, satisfied with his haul Branch took his backpack off of his shoulders and placed the backpack down. The grey troll then carefully packed them away into his backpack, once he was sure that the tea berries were safely packed away in his backpack Branch stood up, he then walked back to Creek, once the survivalist reached the side of the rock which the purple troll was on and he placed the backpack to one side. The grey troll placed his back to the rock Creek was on, he looked up at the guru, Branch patted his lap and then said to the spiritual troll. “Come down here and let me stroke your hair.”

The guru didn’t have to be told this again, he climbed down from the rock he had been sitting on, Creek sat down in the grass beside the grey troll, he then lay back and placed his head into Branch’s lap. A few moments later the survivalist slowly started to run his fingers through the hair of the purple troll, the grey troll loved the feeling of the other troll’s hair again his fingers, it was so very soft and well taken care of, but this didn’t surprise the survivalist at all as a troll’s greatest treasure was their hair. Branch had to admit he was enjoying this a lot, it felt absolutely wonderful to be stroking the other troll’s hair and the survivalist found that he didn’t want to stop stroking his hair. Little did the grey troll know that Creek was loving this just as much as the grey troll was, it was now no wonder to him that Branch had said it was relaxing, the purple troll closed his eyes he didn’t sleep but he did allow himself to start to meditate while laying down.

The grey troll watched the other troll, his face was so relaxed, Branch found himself wanting to kiss Creek, but the survivalist managed to keep this desire to himself if only just. It was several hours before the guru opened his eyes once more, he let out a happy sigh, Creek smiled up at Branch and then said to him. “That was really relaxing…I completely understand what you meant when you told me it was so relaxing. I just want to lay here and never have to move ever again.”

“I can’t say I blame you, after all I know how it feels. You can stay there if you want.” As he spoke the grey troll continues to stroke his fingers through Creek’s two tone hair. “Do you still need to meditate Creek?”

“No, I did that while you were stroking my hair.”

He was so startled that the hand in his hair stopped for a moment and then said to Creek. “Well I didn’t know that you could do that.”

Creek locked eyes with the survivalist admitted to him. “I’ve never done it before but it was wonderful, I would love to do it again with you.”

The grey troll gave the other male troll a smile and as he continued to stroke his hair said to him. “I would be more than willing to do this with you again.”

“Thank you Branch.” Creek told him gratefully.”

“You are most welcome.”

The purple troll let out another happy sigh and then said softly to Branch. “I think my soul mate will be ready to come out of the shadows and see me tonight.”

“I hope so Creek, you’ve been waiting for a while for him to be ready, not that he didn’t have his reasons to hide from you in the first place.”

“Yes, he did have his reasons to hide from me, I just hope that everything goes well tonight.”   
“I hope so too.” After Branch said this softly to the other male troll he slowly and reluctantly took his hand out of his hair.

After he said this the guru sat up, he then came up onto his feet and stared into the distance for a short while. Branch slowly stood up by the other troll, he didn’t say anything to him, instead he lifted his backpack up, then the survivalist stood quietly by Creek as he gazed into the distance. After a few moments of this staring the purple troll shook himself out of this, he looked at the other troll and then said to him apologetically. “Sorry, I was just thinking about what tonight might be like.”

“I can’t say I blame you for that. It’s getting late shall we head back to the village?” Branch asked the other troll.

“Yes, I think I will want to head to bed early once I reach home.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

So it was that together the two male trolls made their way back to the village, when it was time for Branch to head off back to the bunker he turned to his companion and said meaning every word as he did so. “Good night and good luck for tonight Creek.”

“Thank you Branch.” The purple troll said very gratefully to the other troll for wishing him good luck.

After Creek said this to him the grey troll then set off back to his bunker and while the survivalist did this the purple troll made his way back to the troll village. As Creek walked back towards the village, the guru found himself looking forward to tonight and at the same time feeling concerned that things might not go well at all tonight. 

When the spiritual troll went to bed, he was nervous but hopeful about tonight’s encounter with his soul mate, sure enough as soon as he went to sleep there was darkness waiting for him, but the blue tendrils were curling out of it waiting for him to come. Smiling to himself Creek sent his energy forward forming into purple tendrils which caught hold of the blue ones curling around them forming tight twists around each other. “Are you going to come out my soul mate?” The guru asked him as gently as possible.

“Yes.” As he spoke this one word his voice shook ever so slightly, after this a few footsteps sounded in the darkness and then Branch stepped out of the shadows showing himself to the purple troll.

Creek’s grey blue eyes went huge at the sight of the other male troll, then shock as well as anger filled him and he burst out with. “Branch! It was you! All this time it was you! By the troll tree what fun you must have been having at my expense! There I was laying my heart open in front of you and it was you all along! I was so worried about hurting you and you’ve been playing me all this time! You, you grey grump I can’t believe you did this to me! I bet you loved torturing me for the pain I caused you! Oh you’ve had your revenge on me Branch well and truly and I hope that this makes you happy!”

Before the grey troll could say a word to Creek in return for these words, back thorny tendrils burst out of the darkness behind him, they grabbed hold of Branch, they cut into him making him bleed, the survivalist let out scream which was full of pain, then the black thorny tendril dragged him quickly back into the darkness and his voice faded into nothing. Creek found himself suddenly falling through darkness, but this time there were no blue tendrils to catch him and he sat up in bed panting heard. Sweat was running over the purple troll’s skin, he wrapped his arms around himself, the shivered violently, Creek was already realising he had just made a huge mistake and regretting his words. 

The guru instantly wanted to leave his pod, to make his way to the bunker of his soul mate and to beg him to let him in and forgive him, but the spiritual troll felt sure that after what he had done tonight to the other troll that Branch would want nothing to do with him not that Creek could blame the other troll for this fact in the slightest. Slowly the spiritual troll lay back in bed, he mentally cursed himself for his temper and his stupidity, he was going to need to give Branch days perhaps even weeks before he tried to connect to his soul mate again or even talk to the other male troll again.


	8. Chapter eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm having internet issues so you may have to wait until next tuesday for the next chapter sorry all!

Chapter eight:

Days passed and Creek didn’t see Branch any were around troll village or the nearby forest, he became more and more concerned about the grey troll but at the same time he had an overwhelming as well as conflicting senses of fear, pride, as well as regret, all of which prevented the guru from making his way to the bunker to make sure everything was alright with his soul mate. Despite the absence of the grey troll from his life the purple troll found his sleep haunted by their last encounter and he would often find himself waking up in the middle of the night a scream trying to make its way out of him or Branch’s name. So far Creek had found himself unable to even contemplate trying to reach out towards their soul mate bond, he was too afraid of what the consequences might be if he did so.

It was at the week mark after his last encounter with Branch when the guru became aware on a commotion going on in the village, fear spiked in Creek as he heard Poppy’s voice screaming out in absolute terror. “A healer! I need a healer now!”

In response to this desperate cry three of them came running from their medical pod, the snack pack also quickly started to make their way towards the voice of the princess, the two male healers and one female made it to the pink troll before her friends could. The snack pack hurriedly made their way through the crowd gathered around Poppy, one of the two male healers caught hold of Creek and spoke to him. “You can’t come any closer.”

“What, why Ash?” The spiritual troll asked the yellow skinned healer as fear spiked in him again and his stomach churned with dread.

The orange haired troll shook his head at Creek and said as gently as he could. “It’s Branch, he’s not in a good way Creek and we can’t be sure if letting you close to him will do him more harm than good right now. Stay here and don’t come any closer unless we say it’s alright do you understand?”Silently the purple troll gave him a nod in response to this question, he felt weakness travel through him and Creek wanted to be sick. Seeing this nod Ash let go of him he turned back to the other two healers and the princess, and just for a moment the guru got a glimpse of Branch he was a pale grey and completely motionless as he lay against the grass. 

The three healers though not as spiritual as Willow or Creek, were sensitive to spiritual things, they had sensed their soulmate bond between the purple troll and the grey troll almost strait away, but they couldn’t be sure if this was what was having a negative effect on him. They knew that Willow needed to be summoned strait away in order to find out if the soulmate bond was effecting Branch badly is some way. “Some troll go and get Willow and tell him to meet us at the medical pod!” Daisy the white skinned female healer yelled authoritatively and instantly one of the trolls dashed off into the troll village to fetch the old spiritual troll. The healers worked on the survivalist for a while, eventually Storm the other male healer gently lifted Branch up into his arms, the grey troll lay in his arms like a limp doll, Poppy quickly moved forward and gently positioned him more comfortably in the healer’s arms. Once this was done he started through the village towards the healer’s pod, as they walked Creek trailed them along behind them with the rest of the snack pack. Poppy staid with the trolls around Branch they were all talking, but the purple troll was too far back from them to hear anything they were saying to each other.

Creek came into the main room of the healer’s pod, he was focused on Storm carrying the limp Branch into one of the rooms, he lay the pale grey troll down on the bed and the light grey blue skinned troll quickly attached an IV to him. Poppy sat down by the side of Branch, she took one of his hands into her holding it gently, the princess then looked at the three healers and addressed them her voice sad and soft as she did so. “What can we do to help?”

It was the older and wiser female healer Daisy who answered this question from the pink troll. “I think it may be wisest to remove his soul mate bond to Creek, but Willow will be able to tell us for sure if that will be necessary.”

“No…” Creek whispered, he felt furry and terror rising in him as Daisy spoke these words, in an instant certainty settled over the purple troll, he wasn’t going to lose Branch, he couldn’t and wouldn’t permit it to happen. “NO!” Creek yelled with all of his might, the guru determinedly moved 

forward towards the grey troll reaching towards him, but before Creek could reach Branch, Ash and Storm were grabbing him preventing the spiritual troll from getting any closer to his goal. The guru fought their hold, he was frantic, desperation was overwhelming him and it turned Creek from a reasonable and cultured troll into a wild, furious creature. “BRANCH!” The purple troll screamed at the top of his voice.

When he does this the hand of the survivalist which Poppy isn’t holding twitches ever so slightly on the sheets and he makes a small noise. The whole room falls silent, the two male healers quickly let go of Creek, he flies to the side of the bed opposite the princess, his hands are twitching at his side and he is at a loss for what to do, but he manages to say to the one he loves. “Branch…I’m sorry…I’m so, so sorry…”

It is at this moment that Willow enters the pod, he makes his way straight to the bed containing Branch, the older spiritual troll gently places a hand onto the survivalist’s brow and a few moments later he pulls it back hissing through his teeth. His eyes come fall on Creek, the purple troll has never seen his teacher angry before now, but he can tell the other troll is livid and the guru almost flinches when Willow asks in a low dangerous voice. “What did you do to him?”

The younger spiritual troll gulps, then slowly he tells his teacher what happened in their last encounter, by the time he has reached the end of his recounting Willow has done from angry to absolutely furious. “You blind stupid idiot!” The older spiritual troll roars at his student, who shrunk back from him and let out a small noise of fright.

Poppy recalled the older troll back to the situation at hand by asking him in a gentle but commending voice. “Daisy thought it might be best for Branch to break the soul mate bond between Creek and Branch, what do you think Willow?”

Willow gives her a nod as he answers the princesses question. “It is probably for the best yes.”

“No! Please! I’ll admit that I’ve made a horrible, terrible mistake but I can’t lose Branch, I can’t lose my soul mate.” Creek said his voice desperate and his eyes wide with fear.

“Do you love him?” The princess asked her friend.

“Yes…I love Branch.” The purple troll admitted blushing brightly.

“You have an odd way of showing it!” Oak barked at Creek.

The purple troll flinched slightly, he knew that everything the other trolls were saying to him was the truth, the guru felt terrible and totally ashamed of his actions, his soul mate was in this dreadful state all because of him. “I know…I know…I hurt him, but I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Please Willow tell me what to do! Tell me how to help Branch please.”

“I’m not sure he will let you Creek. The older spiritual troll told his pupil with a sad shake of the head. 

“I have to try.” The guru said in desperation, his eyes pleading with his teacher.

The old troll let out a deep sigh. “Alright, but I can’t promise that Branch will respond do you understand?” Creek gave a nod in answer to this question and seeing this Willow spoke to him again. “You’re going to need to open up the link between you both again, go gently, keep reaching for him Creek, put into it all your love, regret and your determination. Lay in the bed with Branch, he will feel better with you close and it will take a lot of your energy to do what you must so you are better off laying down anyway.

The purple troll didn’t need to be told twice, he carefully lay on the bed beside the grey troll, possessively Creek took Branch’s hand out of Poppy’s and held it in his. Once he had done this the guru rolled the survivalist towards him, then gathered the other male troll close to him, tears filled his eyes and he said softly to the one he loved. “Oh Branch, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.” 

After he spoke the purple troll, placed his forehead to that of his soul mate, he closed his eyes then Creek determinedly sort out his link to Branch for the first time a week. All at once the guru found himself in the centre of what was a raging storm, he couldn’t see the one he loved any were, the guru looked around him and Creek yelled with all his might. “BRANCH!” There was no response, not even the tendrils of darkness came forward, but the spiritual troll refused to give up on his soul mate and called again. “BRANCH!” This time a tiny shard of blue light came flying towards Creek, the guru quickly grabbed hold of it with both hands and then pulled it close to him holding this shard close to him. As he did this the rage of the storm increased, but the purple troll held onto this small light determinedly and pushed against the storm trying to move forwards. Slowly but surely he stepped forwards, with each step he could feel the tiny shard growing in his hands and when at last it filled his hands the storm broke at last and all fell quiet. 

Creek looked around him, fear and hope wared for supremacy inside him as he realised there was nothing here save darkness and himself now glowing with purple light. Wondering what had happened to the shard of light the purple troll opened up his hands and gasped as the shard of light was now a beautiful glowing blue seed. The purple troll slipped it carefully into his hair, he looked around again then called for his soul mate once more. “BRANCH!” This call brought another small shard of light which floated in mid-air, it moved towards him and then away from him, understanding quickly dawned on Creek and he followed it through the darkness.

The shard led him to what looked like a black thorny bush, the eyes of the guru widened and horror filled him, he didn’t need to be told who was inside that Creek knew, then he heard the sound of something dripping it echoed in this dark place sounding much louder than it should. When the grey blue eyes of the purple troll found the location of what was making that noise he felt cold dread filling him and as he ran towards the black thorny bush Creek screamed. “BRANCH!”

Without a care for himself the guru thrust his hands into the bush pulling at it with all his might, as he started to yank the bush tearing off parts of the limbs of the bush, the tears he’s held back until now began to fall and he started to babble to the one he loved. “Branch…Oh by the troll tree…Hang on just hang on…Please Branch, don’t give up.” He was totally unaware of the moment when more hands joined his, that dripping sound rang in his mind over and over again and in his mind’s eyes the guru could still see it, the other troll’s blood dripping from between the thorny branches of the bush onto the cold black floor. 

Creek only became aware of his help as the area filled with more light, quickly he looked up from the bush and his eyes went wide again, as his mother and father’s spirits were there working on the bush with him, but they weren’t alone, with them were three other trolls. Creek recognised Rosiepuff, which meant the other two blue trolls working worth with a feverish pace next to her just had to be Branch’s mother and father. The spiritual troll took the time to take them in so he could tell the one he loved about them after this was over and then fell to working on the bush once more. Eventually with this extra help Branch was finally revealed to him, Creek didn’t even try to stop the horrified gasp which left him, the other troll looked terrible, he was covered in bleeding cuts and if it were not for the rise and fall of the far to pale survivalist’s chest Creek would have thought him dead. It was at this point that the glowing blue shard which had led him to Branch floated down back into the grey troll, after this happened the guru looked at the five spirits around him, he gave them a small smile and then whispered softly. “Thank you, all of you.”

Rosiepuff was the one out of the five spirit trolls to speak. “Branch has been waiting for you for a long time Creek. Take good care of him from now on.”

“I will I promise.” The purple troll told her meaning every word of his promise, after he spoke these words Creek gently lifted Branch out of what remained of the bush and he sat on the ground cradling 

him close to him. This reminded the guru of the day he’d let the survivalist listen to his heart, but right now he wanted to listen to Branch’s, so he carefully moved until his ear was pressed against the skin of the other troll’s chest and he could hear his heart beating. As soon as Creek could hear the grey troll’s heart beating he let out a sigh of relief, he placed one of his hands up onto his own chest over his heart and he felt sure that his own was beating in time with that of his soul mate. Slowly and reluctantly the purple troll moved his head, he moved carefully again not wanting to hurt Branch any more than he was already and gathered the grey troll close to him. 

Creek was vaguely aware of the five spirits standing around them watching over them and protecting them from the darkness all around them, but most of his attention was focused on Branch and how badly he had hurt the one he loved. The guru shuddered, he pressed a kiss to the forehead of the other troll then to his lips for a brief but exquisite moment, before he clutched Branch close to him once more and wept while for the first time in his life Creek begged for something. “I’m so sorry…You warned me and warned me…And I still…I’m so sorry Branch. Please forgive me, or hate me if you have to, just don’t leave…I couldn’t stand losing you to. Come on…Open your eyes…Please! Call me an argent jerk or whatever you need to, just don’t give up like this…Please, please…” All around Creek there was nothing but stillness and silence, the purple troll was sure despite the lack of noise he could hear his heart breaking into thousands of pieces.


	9. Chapter nine

Chapter nine:

To Creek the silence seemed to stretch on forever, and just when the guru thought all hope was lost, his mother’s spirit spoke softly her voice sounding very loud in all of the suffocating silence. “Creek, look Branch…”

Quickly the purple troll opened his eyes, he moved Branch back from him slightly as he did so another of his tears dripped off of his face onto the other troll, he watched with awe as when it touched the survivalist one of his wounds closed up and a cloud of a sickly purple substance left the injury as this happened. Swiftly Creek’s grey blue eyes darted over the grey troll in his arms, all of the cuts and gashes which had covered him were now gone and seeing this filled the heart of the guru with hope once more, because at least now it seemed that he was making some sort of progress with Branch. The spiritual troll gently cradled the back of the head of the survivalist, he kissed his lips again, wishing with all of his heart that the other troll would kiss him back and then spoke to the unresponsive Branch again. “Come on Branch open your eyes and say something to me anything.”

After he spoke these words to the other troll a small noise left the grey troll, Creek watched him closely hope surging through him once more, sure enough a few moments later another noise followed the first, then slowly Branch’s vibrant teal eyes opened, they widened at the sight of who was holding him. The survivalist quickly found that he was far too weak to fight the other trolls hold and that the look of pure pain and concern in Creek’s eyes made him feel he shouldn’t be fighting him anyway. When the guru spoke to him his voice was so gentle but so full of concern that it touched the grey troll very deeply. “Oh Branch thank goodness! I thought I thought I’d lost you. My soul mate I’m so sorry. Please forgive me…You need to come back to me I need you so much.”

“Creek…I forgive you…” Branch told him his voice laboured and weak.

Not knowing why he did so the purple troll leant the one he loved against him, he used the hand this action freed to pull the seed out of his hair, the guru gently placed it into the lap of the grey troll who looked down at it with wide eyes, before looking back at him and smiling slightly. “I will come back to life…To you…” As he said this last part the grey troll looked up and as he did so Creek did so with him, the spiritual troll quickly noticed that above them is a pin prick of bright white light which he realises is clearly were the waking world is.

“Let’s go back to life together.” As he speaks Creek gets up onto his feet and then looks around at the spirits who had helped him to free Branch, before saying to them. “Thank you, all of you for everything.”

When Branch sees who Creek is talking to his eyes go wide, there is much he wants to ask, but right now all the grey troll wants is to be back at the side of the one he loves, so instead of asking all of the questions he wishes to asks Branch said to them softly is a voice which was not as strong as it normally was. “Yes, thank you all for helping us to be together once more.”

The five spirits all smiled at the younger trolls, they were all glad to see these two soul mates together once more. After seeing their smiles the two male trolls both looked up at the light above them, as they did so the light grew brighter it felt like they were floating upwards. Then the next things Creek is aware of are his eyes opening, as well as the bed under him and the other troll laying beside him. The purple troll focuses on the troll in his arms, keenly aware of how tired he feels after all he has gone through to reach the grey troll and of the silence in the room around him. Creek waits tensely, praying as he has never prayed before that the troll he loves will come back to him at long last. Slowly Branch’s eyes flicker, they opened gradually, then focus on the guru, who feels so happy when this happened that he has to sit on the urge to yell with joy and instead say softly to the other troll. “Hello Branch my love and my soul mate.”

“Hello Creek my beloved soul mate.” The grey troll said in a weak voice.

After they had said this Willow addressed the couple seriously. “Make sure you both rest, you’ve been through a lot and need to make sure you don’t overdo anything for a while. Creek you will recover faster as you were not as badly effected as Branch so make sure your soul mate doesn’t try to do too much too quickly. As for you Branch I know you are used to being independent but make sure you let Creek help you and that you have properly recovered before you try going back to everything you were used to doing on your own. Do you both understand?”

The two male trolls shared a smile before saying together. “Yes Willow.”

So it was that the two male trolls rested together, they both slept peacefully safe in the knowledge that they had each other and that the one they loved with all their heart loved them back, when they woke again some hours later Creek pressed his forehead to Branch’s and said to him very gently. “I’m so sorry I did that to you.”

As he spoke the grey troll knew that his soul mate meant every word and so he gave Creek one of his rare full smiles as he said to him. “I know you are and I forgive you. I should have told you who I was from the start but I was so scared…”

“Considering the way, I reacted after finding out you were my soul mate I’d say you had a good reason to be scared of me. I was such an idiot, I knew you’d been hurt badly, I was aware that you didn’t trust easily and yet I still said those words.” The purple troll said sadly to the one he loved, one again feeling like a complete fool for harming Branch.

Branch reacted to seeing his sadness quickly and said strongly to the troll he love. “Creek stop it, stop blaming yourself, it happened and I have forgiven you. So let’s put it behind us and move forwards together as a soul mate couple, I love you Creek and I want to make a future with you.”

“Really?” Creek asked his voice full of the awe and joy he was feeling when his soul mate said this to him.

The survivalist gave the one he loved a firm nod. “Yes really Creek.” Branch gently brought his lips to those of the other male troll, the eyes of the purple troll shot wide, he quickly returned the kiss as he did so the guru let out a small moan, this was absolute bliss Creek decided and he didn’t want to ever stop. Slowly he ran his fingers into Branch’s hair, the grey troll shivered in delight and then he moved his hand to the waist of the on the loved laying it there gently. Their lips moved against each other’s slowly and gently for some time before lack of air made them break the kiss, they shared a smile and then Branch said softly and teasingly to the one he loved. “Not bad for a first kiss, but I expect better next time.”

Creek let out a small laugh, he was thrilled to see the other troll teasing him for the first time and then he said to the survivalist. “Better next time huh? I am sure I can manage that.” After he said this the purple troll brought his lips to those of Branch again, this time the kiss was deeper and stronger, the guru combed the fingers of one hand through the hair of the one he loved, he felt satisfaction filling him as the grey troll shuddered with pleasure again and let out a small moan of his own this time. As they kissed the two trolls let all of the love they felt for the other flow into the kiss, wanting to show each other just how much they meant to one another.

As they pulled apart from this second kiss colour started to fill Branch it bloomed over his skin, teal blue light swept his old grey colouring away eliminating it until no grey was left in his skin, then his hair started to transform going royal blue from the bottom up, before it grew taller and formed into its new permanent shape. Branch stared at his skin with surprise and then turned the same wide teal eyes onto Creek who he realises is glowing with purple light, which the now blue troll knows is a sign that this is his soul mate, the glowing guru grins at him and strokes his fingers through the now longer hair as he says. “My aren’t you handsome? I love you Branch, I did before you had colour again. Having you as my soul mate is going to make me the envy of the whole troll tree.”

Despite Branch’s blushing and protestations to the contrary Creek was proven correct, as when the blue troll grew slowly better and more trolls got to see him around the troll village the more of them envied the spiritual troll his handsome soul mate. These trolls however soon discovered that despite his ordeal the survivalist was very much in love with his soulmate and would never consider giving his heart to any other troll. 

Eventually the two trolls had spoken about Branch’s family being there where Creek had come looking for him and the survivalist told Creek how it was seeing them help him and his love which had for him that had turned him blue again and the purple troll had to admit that this confession had made him feel both absolutely wonderful and hugely proud of himself. They had also spoken of the seed which Creek had given to Branch the blue troll had told his soul mate it was a sine not only of a new beginning but of their pods yet to come, a fact which had caused the guru to blush and feel amazingly joyful all at the same time. Over this same period of time the love between the two male trolls grew stronger and stronger, they would always glow slightly when they shared kisses now. Dating each other for some time Creek convinced the troll he loved to move in with him, so Branch had moved from the bunker into what was now their pod and the soul mates settled into life together. They would have their occasional arguments, but after a while Creek and Branch settled into an easy rhythm and came to understand each other better, which brought more peace to their relationship. 

 

It was three months after Creek had almost lost his soul mate the purple troll had something very special planned for their date tonight. The two male trolls had forgone one of the troll parties to spend the night in together, Poppy had been very understanding of the fact they were not going to attend her party after all Creek had told her his important plans for the night. The princess was also aware of the fact that the loud throbbing base could still give Branch headaches, the healers had given him some medication for it which made things easier for him, but occasionally he still suffered the headaches so she knew that there were occasions when the two male trolls didn’t attend her party’s due to this fact as well as their regular dates.

Branch let Creek guide him through the troll village, up a nearby tree, to a nice thick branch which gave them a lovely clear view of the night sky. Branch turned to look at his soul mate with wide teal eyes, on the branch was a picnic on a blanket, the area was lit with glass lanterns which filled the area with flickering golden light. “Oh Creek this is wonderful.”

“I’m glad you like it my love. Shall we eat?” The guru asked the one he loved hoping that his voice didn’t betray how nervous he felt tonight.

“I’d like that.” The blue troll told the one he loved, together they settled on the blanket they started eating the food in the basket and talking to each other.

“I’m glad to see you fully recovered at last.” Creek told Branch meaning every word.

“I’m glad to be better too, I hate being unwell.” The blue troll told him honestly.

The guru chuckled slightly and the said ruefully. “Don’t I know it, you were terrible! Trying to get you to rest was almost impossible, thank goodness I learnt to exchange kisses for rest.”

“I couldn’t help it! I’m used to doing things all of the time and being independent…I have to admit I did enjoy exchanging kisses for rest, I still enjoy exchanging kisses for thing with each other. There was one good thing about everything which happened which I wouldn’t change spending time with you as I got better, it taught me to rely on you Creek and I know that I can now and always.” As Branch confessed all of this to the troll he loved the blue troll blushed brightly.

Slowly Creek smiled at the survivalist, he lay a hand onto one of the blue troll’s cheek’s and stroked his thumb over it, as he did this the spiritual troll said to the one he loved. “I wouldn’t change that time either, it was wonderful to know that you learnt to trust me and I want you to know that I learnt to trust you in return. I fell more and more in love with you every day, I am so very proud of having you as my soul mate, we fit each other in ways I could never have imagined.”

The survivalist leant into this gentle caring gesture and said softly. “I love you so much Creek.”

“I love you too Branch.” After the guru said this he reluctantly drew his hand away from the cheek of the one he loved, together they packed away what remained of the picnic, when this was done Creek placed his hand into his hair, drew out the ring and presented it to Branch asking him the question he had been aching to ask the troll he loved all night. “My soul mate would you do me the honour of marrying me?”

The eyes of the blue troll had gone wide with shock as Creek had held the ring out to him and asked him this question, but after a few moments Branch felt happiness rush through him and said to the troll he loved his voice full of the joy he felt. “Yes! Yes Creek I will marry you.”

Gently the guru took the left hand of the blue troll into his, he gently slipped the gold band topped with a single purple stone in exactly the same colour of his skin onto the middle finger of Branch. Creek lifted this hand he kissed the ring on the survivalist’s finger causing him to blush brightly and when the purple troll looked up Branch leant in and caught his lips with his own kissing him lovingly as he ran the fingers of his free hand into the two toned hair of his soul mate and pushed him down onto the blanket under them.

The wedding was a held four month later, it was a small intimate affair to which only the two trolls invited only the snack pack, for King Peppy and the couples friends it was clear that this soul mate couple were very much in love and would always be so. Their vows to each other were heartfelt, they touched all of those there and even drew a few tears from more the sentimental trolls in attendance. The party after the wedding was one to which the whole tribe was invited in order to make up for them not being able to attend the wedding. As for the newly married couple, they didn’t attend the wedding party for long and in fact stole off quietly on their honey moon quiet soon after it started. Creek and Branch didn’t return from their honey moon trip for two and a half weeks, when they did arrive back the purple troll looked rather satisfied with himself, the other trolls were polite enough not to comment on his state of satisfaction, but they did all share knowing looks when three months after this rather long honey moon Branch announced that he was with pod for what would be the first of four times.

The two male trolls would go on to prove themselves to be excellent fathers to their three sons and one daughter, who were lovely mixtures of both their fathers. Creek and Branch would always be very much in love, their soul mate relationship was a powerful bond between them and one of the many gifts which they passed onto their wonderful and much loved children. There would always be occasional fights between these two strong willed trolls and some sarcastic remarks were occasionally traded, but they always quickly made up after these incidents. Creek and Branch made sure to never go to bed angry with each other and to always reconfirm their love and soul mate bond with each other as often as possible.


End file.
